High prevalence of bronchiectasis is linked to HTLV-1-associated inflammatory disease.

BACKGROUND: Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), a retrovirus, is the causative agent of HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATLL). The reported association with pulmonary disease such as bronchiectasis is less certain. METHODS: A retrospective case review of a HTLV-1 seropositive cohort attending a national referral centre. The cohort was categorised into HTLV-1 symptomatic patients (SPs) (ATLL, HAM/TSP, Strongyloidiasis and HTLV associated inflammatory disease (HAID)) and HTLV-1 asymptomatic carriers (ACs). The cohort was reviewed for diagnosis of bronchiectasis. RESULT: 34/246 ACs and 30/167 SPs had been investigated for respiratory symptoms by computer tomography (CT) with productive cough +/- recurrent chest infections the predominant indications. Bronchiectasis was diagnosed in one AC (1/246) and 13 SPs (2 HAID, 1 ATLL, 10 HAM/TSP) (13/167, RR 19.2 95 % CI 2.5-14.5, p = 0.004) with high resolution CT. In the multivariate analysis ethnicity (p = 0.02) and disease state (p < 0.001) were independent predictors for bronchiectasis. The relative risk of bronchiectasis in SPs was 19.2 (95 % CI 2.5-14.5, p = 0.004) and in HAM/TSP patients compared with all other categories 8.4 (95 % CI 2.7-26.1, p = 0.0002). Subjects not of African/Afro-Caribbean ethnicity had an increased prevalence of bronchiectasis (RR 3.45 95 % 1.2-9.7, p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Bronchiectasis was common in the cohort (3.4 %). Risk factors were a prior diagnosis of HAM/TSP and ethnicity but not HTLV-1 viral load, age and gender. The spectrum of HTLV-associated disease should now include bronchiectasis and HTLV serology should be considered in patients with unexplained bronchiectasis

Effects of Genetic Variants Previously Associated with Fasting Glucose and Insulin in the Diabetes Prevention Program

Common genetic variants have been recently associated with fasting glucose and insulin levels in white populations. Whether these associations replicate in pre-diabetes is not known. We extended these findings to the Diabetes Prevention Program, a clinical trial in which participants at high risk for diabetes were randomized to placebo, lifestyle modification or metformin for diabetes prevention. We genotyped previously reported polymorphisms (or their proxies) in/near G6PC2, MTNR1B, GCK, DGKB, GCKR, ADCY5, MADD, CRY2, ADRA2A, FADS1, PROX1, SLC2A2, GLIS3, C2CD4B, IGF1, and IRS1 in 3,548 Diabetes Prevention Program participants. We analyzed variants for association with baseline glycemic traits, incident diabetes and their interaction with response to metformin or lifestyle intervention. We replicated associations with fasting glucose at MTNR1B (P<0.001), G6PC2 (P = 0.002) and GCKR (P = 0.001). We noted impaired β-cell function in carriers of glucose-raising alleles at MTNR1B (P<0.001), and an increase in the insulinogenic index for the glucose-raising allele at G6PC2 (P<0.001). The association of MTNR1B with fasting glucose and impaired β-cell function persisted at 1 year despite adjustment for the baseline trait, indicating a sustained deleterious effect at this locus. We also replicated the association of MADD with fasting proinsulin levels (P<0.001). We detected no significant impact of these variants on diabetes incidence or interaction with preventive interventions. The association of several polymorphisms with quantitative glycemic traits is replicated in a cohort of high-risk persons. These variants do not have a detectable impact on diabetes incidence or response to metformin or lifestyle modification in the Diabetes Prevention Program

U.S. academic libraries: understanding their web presence and their relationship with economic indicators

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1001-0The main goal of this research is to analyze the web structure and performance of units and services belonging to U.S. academic libraries in order to check their suitability for webometric studies. Our objectives include studying their possible correlation with economic data and assessing their use for complementary evaluation purposes. We conducted a survey of library homepages, institutional repositories, digital collections, and online catalogs (a total of 374 URLs) belonging to the 100 U.S. universities with the highest total expenditures in academic libraries according to data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. Several data points were taken and analyzed, including web variables (page count, external links, and visits) and economic variables (total expenditures, expenditures on printed and electronic books, and physical visits). The results indicate that the variety of URL syntaxes is wide, diverse and complex, which produces a misrepresentation of academic libraries’ web resources and reduces the accuracy of web analysis. On the other hand, institutional and web data indicators are not highly correlated. Better results are obtained by correlating total library expenditures with URL mentions measured by Google (r = 0.546) and visits measured by Compete (r = 0.573), respectively. Because correlation values obtained are not highly significant, we estimate such correlations will increase if users can avoid linkage problems (due to the complexity of URLs) and gain direct access to log files (for more accurate data about visits).Orduña Malea, E.; Regazzi, JJ. (2014). U.S. academic libraries: understanding their web presence and their relationship with economic indicators. Scientometrics. 98(1):315-336. doi:10.1007/s11192-013-1001-0S315336981Adecannby, J. (2011). Web link analysis of interrelationship between top ten African universities and world universities. Annals of library and information studies, 58(2), 128–138.Aguillo, I. F. (2009). Measuring the institutions’ footprint in the web. Library Hi Tech, 27(4), 540–556.Aguillo, I. F., Ortega, J. L., & Fernández, M. (2008). Webometric Ranking of World Universities: Introduction, methodology, and future developments. Higher education in Europe, 33(2/3), 234–244.Aguillo, I. F., Ortega, J. L., Fernandez, M., & Utrilla, A. M. (2010). Indicators for a webometric ranking of open Access repositories. Scientometrics, 82(3), 477–486.Arakaki, M., & Willet, P. (2009). Webometric analysis of departments of librarianship and information science: A follow-up study. Journal of information science, 35(2), 143–152.Arlitsch, K., & O’Brian, P. S. (2012). Invisible institutional repositories: Addresing the low indexing ratios of IR in Google Scholar. Library Hi Tech, 30(1), 60–81.Bar-Ilan, J. (1999). Search engine results over time—A case study on search engine stability”. Cybermetrics, 2/3. Retrieved February 18, 2013 from http://www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics/articles/v2i1p1.html.Bar-Ilan, J. (2001). Data collection methods on the Web for informetric purposes: A review and analysis. Scientometrics, 50(1), 7–32.Bermejo, F. (2007). The internet audience: Constitution & measurement. New York: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated.Buigues-Garcia, M., & Gimenez-Chornet, V. (2012). Impact of Web 2.0 on national libraries. International Journal of Information Management, 32(1), 3–10.Chu, H., He, S., & Thelwall, M. (2002). Library and information science schools in Canada and USA: A Webometric perspective. Journal of education for Library and Information Science, 43(2), 110–125.Chua, Alton, Y. K., & Goh, D. H. (2010). A study of Web 2.0 applications in library websites. Library and Information Science Research, 32(3), 203–211.Gallego, I., García, I.-M., & Rodríguez, L. (2009). Universities’ websites: Disclosure practices and the revelation of financial information. The International Journal of Digital Accounting Research, 9(15), 153–192.Gomes, B. & Smith, B. T. (2003). Detecting query-specific duplicate documents. [Patent]. Retrieved February 18, 2013 from http://www.patents.com/Detecting-query-specific-duplicate-documents/US6615209/en-US .Harinarayana, N. S., & Raju, N. V. (2010). Web 2.0 features in university library web sites. Electronic Library, 28(1), 69–88.Lewandowski, D., Wahlig, H., & Meyer-Bautor, G. (2006). The freshness of web search engine databases. Journal of Information Science, 32(2), 131–148.Mahmood, K., & Richardson, J. V, Jr. (2012). Adoption of Web 2.0 in US academic libraries: A survey of ARL library websites. Program, 45(4), 365–375.Orduña-Malea, E., & Ontalba-Ruipérez, J-A. (2012). Selective linking from social platforms to university websites: A case study of the Spanish academic system. Scientometrics. (in press).Ortega, J. L., & Aguillo, I. F. (2009). Mapping World-class universities on the Web. Information Processing and Management, 45(2), 272–279.Ortega, José L. & Aguillo, Isidro F. (2009b). North America Academic Web Space: Multicultural Canada vs. The United States Homogeneity. In: ASIST & ISSI pre-conference symposium on informetrics and scientometrics.Phan, T., Hardesty, L., Sheckells, C., & George, A. (2009). Documentation for the academic libraries survey (ALS) public-use data file: Fiscal year 2008. Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences U.S. Department of Education.Qiu, J., Cheng, J., & Wang, Z. (2004). An analysis of backlinks counts and web impact factors for Chinese university websites. Scientometrics, 60(3), 463–473.Regazzi, J. J. (2012a). Constrained?—An analysis of U.S. Academic Libraries and shifts in spending, staffing and utilization, 1998–2008. College and Research Libraries, 73(5), 449–468.Regazzi, J. J. (2012b). Comparing Academic Library Spending with Public Libraries, Public K-12 Schools, Higher Education Public Institutions, and Public Hospitals Between 1998–2008. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 38(4), 205–216.Rousseau, R. (1999). Daily time series of common single word searches in AltaVista and NorthernLight. Cybermetrics, 2/3. Retrieved February 18, 2013 from http://www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics/articles/v2i1p2.html .Sato, S., & Itsumura, H. (2011). How do people use open access papers in non-academic activities? A link analysis of papers deposited in institutional repositories. Library, Information and Media Studies, 9(1), 51–64.Scholze, F. (2007). Measuring research impact in an open access environment. Liber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries, 17(1–4), 220–232.Smith, A. G. (2011). Wikipedia and institutional repositories: An academic symbiosis? In: Proceedings of the ISSI 2011 conference. Durban, South Africa, 4–7 July 2011. 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Multiple ITS Copies Reveal Extensive Hybridization within Rheum (Polygonaceae), a Genus That Has Undergone Rapid Radiation

During adaptive radiation events, characters can arise multiple times due to parallel evolution, but transfer of traits through hybridization provides an alternative explanation for the same character appearing in apparently non-sister lineages. The signature of hybridization can be detected in incongruence between phylogenies derived from different markers, or from the presence of two divergent versions of a nuclear marker such as ITS within one individual.In this study, we cloned and sequenced ITS regions for 30 species of the genus Rheum, and compared them with a cpDNA phylogeny. Seven species contained two divergent copies of ITS that resolved in different clades from one another in each case, indicating hybridization events too recent for concerted evolution to have homogenised the ITS sequences. Hybridization was also indicated in at least two further species via incongruence in their position between ITS and cpDNA phylogenies. None of the ITS sequences present in these nine species matched those detected in any other species, which provides tentative evidence against recent introgression as an explanation. Rheum globulosum, previously indicated by cpDNA to represent an independent origin of decumbent habit, is indicated by ITS to be part of clade of decumbent species, which acquired cpDNA of another clade via hybridization. However decumbent and glasshouse morphology are confirmed to have arisen three and two times, respectively.These findings suggested that hybridization among QTP species of Rheum has been extensive, and that a role of hybridization in diversification of Rheum requires investigation

Salud reproductiva e interculturalidad

This opinion piece by several authors is based on a text that describes the conflict between the Mapuche community and a physician from the health-care system of the province of Neuquén when the Mapuche women entered the sexual and reproductive health program. Opinions are expressed in two different ways: first, with specific reference to the text and then, as a subjective elaboration. Among the issues analyzed in more depth are the regulations governing health-care system interventions and the power relations between genders and among different cultures.Este artículo de opinión ha sido realizado por varios autores en base a un texto que relata el conflicto suscitado entre la comunidad mapuche y una médica del sistema de salud de la provincia del Neuquén, al incorporarse a las mujeres de la comunidadal programa de salud sexual y reproductiva. Los participantes expresan sus opiniones en dos rondas: en la primera se refieren específicamente al texto y en la segunda comentan las exposiciones de la primera. Entre los tópicos analizados con mayor profundidad se destacan los vinculados con la normatividad en las intervenciones de los sistemas de salud y con las relaciones de poder que se producen entre ambos géneros y entre las diferentes culturas

Protein Docking by the Interface Structure Similarity: How Much Structure Is Needed?

The increasing availability of co-crystallized protein-protein complexes provides an opportunity to use template-based modeling for protein-protein docking. Structure alignment techniques are useful in detection of remote target-template similarities. The size of the structure involved in the alignment is important for the success in modeling. This paper describes a systematic large-scale study to find the optimal definition/size of the interfaces for the structure alignment-based docking applications. The results showed that structural areas corresponding to the cutoff values <12 Å across the interface inadequately represent structural details of the interfaces. With the increase of the cutoff beyond 12 Å, the success rate for the benchmark set of 99 protein complexes, did not increase significantly for higher accuracy models, and decreased for lower-accuracy models. The 12 Å cutoff was optimal in our interface alignment-based docking, and a likely best choice for the large-scale (e.g., on the scale of the entire genome) applications to protein interaction networks. The results provide guidelines for the docking approaches, including high-throughput applications to modeled structures